Media Fireworks Over For Now But the UK Gambling Bill Simmers On..

Published: Friday, December 24, 2004 Online-Casinos.com

MEDIA FIREWORKS OVER FOR NOW

But the UK Gambling Bill simmers on...

Now that the immediate media and political furore over the new British Gambling Bill has subsided a little after the government's back-down on super land casinos, new guidelines for licensing are emerging.

The Gambling Bill Standing Committee this week released details of a new system that will be used to decide the location and licensing regime for new casinos.

The first phase of the new system will limit the number of regional, small and large casinos in the UK to eight each. This limit will not increase until at least three years after the award of the first premises licence for these initial casinos.

The location for each new casino will be decided in a two-stage process, involving the government, an independent panel, the Scottish Executive, the Welsh Assembly and local authorities.

In the second stage, if there are more applicants meeting the regulatory tests than available licences, the local authority will run a competition.

Any operators chosen by local authorities will still require an operating licence from the Gambling Commission but there will be no limit on the number of operating licences that may be granted.

Minister for sport and tourism, Richard Caborn, said: "The priority of this bill is to protect children and vulnerable people. That's why we've adopted a cautious approach throughout.

"The new system will allow us to test the impact of new casinos on levels of problem gabling in a number of different types of locations and will provide an objective way of deciding the location of new casinos." Details: www.culture.gov.uk

Thankfully, the online gaming provisions have not attracted any significant or controversial attention thus far.